My Fellow Americans

I’m a big September 12th guy.

September 11th is for mourning—the day we remember the worst terrorist attack ever committed against our nation. But September 12th is the day we came together to fight for a better future for America.

Neighbors held vigil together. Strangers stood in line to donate blood. Young men and women walked into recruiting stations, not knowing what the future would hold, only that they had a duty to serve. A generation of public servants answered the call to serve something greater than themselves. We didn’t just grieve—we acted with unity and purpose. We knew that an attack on one of us was an attack on all of us.

It shaped my core belief in public service and the possibility of what we can achieve when we unite together.

Such unity is not a myth. We’ve done it. I’ve seen it and participated in it. It’s not only possible, it’s necessary.

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An American Heart, Broken Again

This week, that feeling of national grief came roaring back.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk shocks our national conscience. Perhaps because like 9/11 and January 6th, it was captured on video. Real. Gruesome. Haunting.

9/11 was directed at symbols of American power. January 6th was directed at the symbol of American democracy. And this week’s shooting took aim at a symbol of American values - a political figure exercising his fundamental freedom of speech as he invited debate with fellow Americans exercising that same freedom.

But the pain cuts deeper—not just because of the violence against America, but because of the attacker: a fellow American.

We’ve seen this all too often recently. The assault on the Capitol. The hammer attack on Paul Pelosi. The targeted killings of Minnesota lawmakers. The arson against Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home. The assassination attempts against President Trump. These aren’t just headlines. They’re symptoms of a sickness.

9/11 created unimaginable pain—but the perpetrator was foreign. They didn’t care about our politics, our race, our faith, or our net worth. They attacked all of us.

But when Americans turn on one another—when we see fellow citizens as the enemy—the wound doesn’t just bleed. It festers. It turns neighbor against neighbor. It breaks the promise of America as a refuge for all those seeking freedom.

Enemies, Foreign and Domestic

I spent the early part of my career combating foreign enemies of the United States after 9/11. Terrorists like al-Qa’ida and ISIS who were hellbent on killing Americans. They used airplanes as missiles against population centers, detonated car bombs and suicide vests against crowds, attacked buses and trains full of passengers, and even beheaded civilians simply for being American.

But I am increasingly distressed by the dangerous trend of labeling and treating fellow Americans as enemies.

I myself have been guilty of this. I once carelessly described my former political opponent, Rep. Elise Stefanik, as “an enemy of democracy and an anti-American extremist.” No matter my disagreement with her policies and actions, I was wrong to label her an enemy.

Emotionally charged language has been part of our political life since the founding. But there is a line we must not cross: the dehumanization of our fellow Americans.

When we strip those we disagree with of their humanity, it becomes easier to dismiss them. To mock them. To silence them. To strip them of their rights. To hate them. And yes—to harm and kill them.

This is the vicious cycle of political violence we find ourselves trapped in.

The enemy of democracy is political violence itself.

America Is Hard

There’s a line from The American President that I’ve always loved:

“America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, 'cause it’s gonna put up a fight. You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

We owe the American people the opportunity to hear from the Charlie Kirks of this world, to have full throated debates about issues. Resorting to violence to resolve our differences is easy, but it’s also anti-American.

Democracy is messy. Free speech is uncomfortable. Equality demands increasing the circle of our concern to others often most unlike us. It’s the hard that makes America great. It’s the hard that makes us better. And it can define us again–if we let it.

What if we started with the simplest hard thing: acknowledging the humanity of our fellow Americans?

What if we acknowledged—before anything else—that the person across the aisle is a fellow American, worthy of dignity, worthy of life, worthy of this country?

I challenge anyone to tell me which of my American brothers and sisters are not worthy of these things.

We may differ in policies and principles. We don’t have to agree, we don’t even have to approve.

But for all the talk about America First, it is about time we see each other as Americans first.

Searching for Leadership in This Moment

Moments like these demand leadership, especially because they are hard. We need positive examples to emulate. Strength beyond our instincts and emotions. But too often, we get the opposite.

Too many leaders—Trump chief among them—have failed this test. They seek to profit from our anger, our fear, our division. They point fingers instead of leading us forward.

President Trump—himself a victim of two assassination attempts—has failed to rise above his base instincts. Failed to unify. Failed to lead. Because his entire political identity is built on division. His success relies on keeping us angry, in fear, and pitted against one another.

In an Oval Office address following Kirk’s assassination and in subsequent interviews this week, he intentionally omitted examples of political violence against Democrats and rejected the idea that political violence could emanate from extremists on the right-wing of the political spectrum. And when asked on Friday how do we bring the country together, Trump responded: “I couldn’t care less.” What a dissapointment.

But there are glimmers of hope and rejection of the politics of division.

In the aftermath of this this week’s tragedy, the Connecticut Young Republicans and the Young Democrats of Connecticut issued a joint statement condemning the shooting.

Texas State Rep. James Talarico—a Democrat, new candidate for Senate, and a pastor—was quick to remind of Christ’s commandment: love thy neighbor.

The images of this week will stay with us. Like the smoke of 9/11. Like the mob of January 6th. Like the chaos in Dallas in 1963.

But the scars can also leave lessons.

We don’t need to surrender our principles to remember our shared dignity.

We don’t need to erase our differences to recognize our common destiny.

We can choose decency over dehumanization.

The memory of September 12th reminds us of who we can be—united, resilient, ready to fight for one another, not against one another. That spirit is still within us. And it is the only way America endures.

As Lincoln reminds us:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”

Let that be our renewed pledge: Never again my enemy, but forever My Fellow Americans.